Baylor crushes Texas, 30-10, for Big 12 title

Associated Press

Bryce Petty threw touchdown passes on the first two drives of the second half for No. 9 Baylor and the Bears won their first Big 12 title and a Fiesta Bowl berth with a 30-10 victory over No. 23 Texas on Saturday.

The final game in Baylor's old stadium in Waco, Texas, became a de facto Big 12 championship game after No. 6 Oklahoma State lost to Oklahoma just before kickoff.

Baylor (11-1, 8-1 Big 12) had never even had a winning record in the Big 12 before Coach Art Briles arrived six years ago. Now the Bears have their first 11-win season and their first outright title in any league since the 1980 Southwest Conference title when Mike Singletary called Floyd Casey Stadium home.

Petty threw for 287 yards, with touchdowns to Antwan Goodley and Levi Norwood after a 3-3 halftime tie.

Malcolm Brown ran for 131 yards for Texas (8-4, 7-2).

No 18 Oklahoma 33, at No. 6 Oklahoma State 24: Blake Bell threw a seven-yard touchdown pass to Jalen Saunders with 19 seconds remaining as the Sooners played spoilers against the Cowboys.

Bell, playing in place of an injured Trevor Knight, led the Sooners (10-2, 7-2 Big 12) on the game-winning 66-yard drive — completing five of eight for 57 yards on the drive.

Eric Striker ended the game by recovering a fumble for a touchdown for Oklahoma, which has now won at least 10 games in four straight seasons.

Sooners Coach Bob Stoops is now 8-1 in his career against Cowboys Coach Mike Gundy.

Desmond Roland led Oklahoma State (10-2, 7-2) with 144 yards rushing and accounted for three touchdowns.

No. 15 Central Florida 17, at Southern Methodist 13: Blake Bortles threw for 242 yards and ran for two touchdowns as the Knights celebrated a BCS bid already in hand by rallying to win in front of just a few hundred fans who braved a brutal ice storm.

With the school's first BCS berth secured by Louisville's win at Cincinnati on Thursday, the Knights were sluggish before recovering for a school-record eighth straight win and the outright title in the first year of the American Athletic Conference.

UCF (11-1, 8-0 AAC) has both of the 34-year-old program's 11-win seasons in the past four years. The Knights went 11-3 in 2010 and beat Georgia in the Liberty Bowl.

SMU (5-7, 4-4) saw its bowl streak end at four seasons in the coldest home game in school history — 24 degrees at kickoff. It matched the 1983 Sun Bowl in El Paso as SMU's coldest game. It was Central Florida's coldest game by far.

SMU quarterback Neal Burcham had 222 yards passing and a touchdown to Keenan Holman, who had 91 yards on six catches.

at Rice 41, Marshall 24: Rice clinched its first outright conference title since 1957, running over Marshall in the Conference USA championship game.

The Owls (10-3) relied on their bruising ground attack to subdue the Herd (9-4), with running backs Charles Ross and Luke Turner delivering via versatility. Rice gained 250 of its 489 yards on the ground.

Ross rushed for 109 yards and two touchdowns, upping his season total to 14 and matching the program season mark set by Trevor Cobb in 1991. Turner passed for two touchdowns, doubling his career total.

The Owls' defense was exceptional, limiting the Herd to 371 yards and 4.8 yards per play. Marshall averaged 53 points during the five-game winning streak it carried into its first Conference USA title-game appearance. Herd quarterback Rakeem Cato passed for 265 yards and two touchdowns in the loss.